This is a personal story of a life lived in many places, from a childhood in Newfoundland to the bustling and increasingly modern metropolis of Beijing, China. It includes stops in London and Paris and Jakarta and Prague, and many years in Ottawa, where I was lucky to serve in a number of senior positions, including Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet during the intense period leading up to the Quebec referendum on sovereignty in 1995. It is not a diary, nor a complete history of the events through which I have lived. It is simply a collection of anecdotes and events as I remember them.